While most of the national media attention is on the historic presidential election, Missouri’s gubernatorial contest has been heating to a boil this summer — and the results could have big consequences for higher education in the Show-Me State.

Tomorrow’s primary election will have the most impact on the Republican side, where U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof is battling Sarah Steelman, the state treasurer, points out an election analysis by Stateline.org. Mr. Hulshof, who has served six terms in Congress, was a potential candidate to lead the University of Missouri system in 2007. He supports outgoing Gov. Matt Blunt’s actions to sell some of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority assets in order to pump $350-million into building projects at the state’s universities.

Ms. Steelman, a former state senator, has overseen the state’s college savings plan and is pushing a measure that would use unclaimed property to provide matching grants to families who enroll in that plan.

The winner of the GOP primary will most likely face Democratic state Attorney General Jay Nixon, who filed paperwork to launch his gubernatorial campaign way back in November 2005 just one year after Governor Blunt was elected.

Mr. Nixon strongly opposed the sale of student loans to private firms but has not proposed any specific fixes for higher-education funding on his Web site.

The sale of state-backed student-loan assets was initially hailed as groundbreaking, but hit a snag this year as the difficulties in the mortgage industry also crimped some student lenders. Mohela temporarily suspended its participation in the federal student-loan program and later announced that it would cancel some special interest rates for student borrowers. In addition, the agency announced that it was short on cash and could not make its second quarterly payment of $5-million to the state in April.